is to educate children. now, on that, we can agree. now it is time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell, it is friday morning. this morning cleveland kidnapper ariel castro goes to prison for the rest of his life, but not before being confronted by one of his victims. >> what does god think of you hypocritically going to church every sunday, coming home to torture us? >> why the state department is shutting down dozens of american embassies. plus, russia takes edward snowden out of limbo. what anthony weiner has to say about his sexting alias. and robin thicke stars on late night. good morning, i'm betty ngyuen.

dramatic moments in an ohio courtroom when a home held against her will for a decade comes face-to-face with her kidnapper. nbc's jay gray was there. >> reporter: wiping away tears, michelle knight for the first time since her escape shared the same room for the man that held her captive and terrorized her for more than a decade. >> i wasn't armed. you will die a little every day and you think about the 11 years and atrocities you inflicted on us. >> daily physical, mental and emotional abuse, outlined for the first time today by prosecutors who showed the inside of what they call ariel castro's house of horrors, where knight, amanda berry and gina dejesus were violently assaulted starved and chained so they couldn't leave. now it's castro who is shackled so he will never see the outside world again. >> i'm trying to answer my own

questions. i don't know why. >> in a rambling, delusional statement, castro blamed an addiction to pornography for his actions. talked about being a happy, responsible person, called the situation in his home a, quote, normal family and insisted he's not a violent man. >> i am not a monster. i did not prey on these women. sexual addictions -- >> doors were locked, people were chained up, windows were covered. >> several times during the proceeding, castro interrupted judge russo. who told castro, quote, you have extreme narcissim before sentencing him to life plus 11,000 years in prison. we turn now to what washington calls a growing security threat. there is word that dozens of american embassies this

morning are being ordered to shut down this coming sunday. tracie potts joins us with the latest on this. what do we know about why this move was being made? betty, we know that the threat is time specific. in other words, they have a sense that something is going to happen on sunday, they just don't know where. that's why out of an abundance of precautions, that's what the state department says, they're shutting down all of these embassies. we have a list of them, 15 in all. we can show you some of them. they are primarily throughout the middle east and asia. one in kabul. baghdad, along with several others. sources tell us that this is the end of ramadan which ends on wednesday. ironically, it is also president obama's birthday on sunday and iran is installing a new president on sunday. they don't think it's related to

either of those. the information is that it's related to ramadan and that's why the embassies will be shutting down. >> tracie, thank you very much. defying the request from the u.s., russia has granted edward snowden temporary asylum. the self-professed nsa leaker got the proper documents to leave. he is in an undisclosed location this morning. and while it might help the former contractor this morning, jim aceda is joining us. what are the implications for what has happened with the whole snowden scenario? >> reporter: good morning, betty. the snowden situation has strained difficult relations between the united states and russia. the u.s. does see the snowden asylum as a slap in the face

really. the question now is how far is the obama administration willing to go to embarrass putin by boycotting the g 20. obama and putin plan to have one-on-one talks in moscow before the g-20. the white house is hinting to cancel that. he spent his first night in freedom as an official refugee. his lawyer says that he's staying in the home of an american expat family, that he's learning russian and wants to get a job to support himself. not in information technology. he's more interested in becoming a human rights activist. back to you. >> very interesting. thank you very much. we'll watch that story play out. negotiations between alex rodriguez and major league

baseball are recoportedly stall. he wants to catch in on the $100 million left in his contract. he and the mlb are stalled about the kind of suspension he's willing to accept. as early as today the mlb was expected to suspend a rod and others suspected of using performance enhancing drugs from that biogenesis company. a rod will play tonight and tomorrow. it looks like monday is the new deadline. here's this morning's first look at scrambled politics. apparently in texas when you stand up you better be prepared to pay up. republicans there want state senator wendy davis to cough up the cost for last month's special session. a republican says davis should reimburse taxpayers since it was

her filibuster that forced lawmakers to come back. a new poll spells struggle for senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. it is still 15 months before they go to the polls but it shows allyson lundergan grimes leading the polls by 1%. both results fall within the margin of error. >> new jersey governor chris christie, he is reaching into the deep pockets of casino billionaire, sheldon adelson. last night fund-raiser was for the governor's re-election efforts and not a potential 2016 bid. a fed up senator harry reid was not pleased when he talked thursday to try to prevent debate on a transportation bill. here's what happened when senator tammy baldwin tried to call the chamber to order. listen. >> madam president. madam president -- >> the majority leader.

>> have them sit down and shut up, okay? it's unfair. >> the senate will be in order. >> if they have something to say, it's just not polite. all right. he told them to sit down and shut up. well, when things got moving, the senate's last act before senate recess was to confirm samantha power as ambassador to the united nations. she replaced susan rice. and one newspaper editor critical of president obama's jobs plans is this morning looking for a job himself. chattanooga free press editor drew johnson was fired after writing a headline telling the president to take his job plan and, quote, shove it. the paper said it fell outside normal editing procedures. that is your morning dish of scrambled politics. all right. so we want you to take a look at this video that we're about to show you from northern georgia. heavy rain causing some major

flooding there. more than a half foot of rain fell. >> fore. >> people are playing golf in the front yard. >> why not? >> firefighters spent much of the day rescuing trapped residents. talk about this nasty weather -- >> typically we show people canoing down their street. why not take the golf club out. >> in the middle of your yard where it's flooding. >> it's been rough in the south. this has not been a pretty summer. a lot of rain. too much rain. very cloudy. we're getting a break. even the northeast has a soggy june. portions of july and the rain from yesterday just about gone. a little bit left in providence and portsmouth, bangor will be exiting and gone. heavy rain and thunderstorms this morning over eastern kansas getting drenched. flash flooding is there. from impoor yeah to topeka, that's where we're seeing the

worst of it. yesterday was very hot in texas. we'll do it again today. it was 103 in san antonio. hot once again for the weekend weather pattern. it's cool up in the great lakes. we'll see storms saturday and sunday from new york city to d.c. overall the weekend looks quiet. much more of the same i should say except the southeast finally a dry weekend. >> good news. thank you. just in time for the weekend. coming up, a rare eruption in yellowstone. plus, anthony weiner opens up just a little bit. you're watching "first look" on msnbc. did you know, your eyes can lose vital nutrients as you age?

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some stories making news this morning. plus anthony weiner opens up just a little bit about carlos

danger. eric balance good doe called the name very insulting to the spanish community. former new england patriots tight end aaron hernandez has proclaimed his innocence from behind bars. hernandez who is awaiting trial for plurd der penned a letter saying this is all part of god's plan and, quote, something good will come out of this. yellowstone park's guyser erupted for the first time on thursday. the guyser, which is the world's tallest, shot steaming hot water close to 300 feet in the air and no one knows when it will erupt again. in business, august 1st proved to be one for the record books. stocks soared new highs on thursday. the s&p 500 propelled above 1700 points for the first time.

now all eyes are on today's political jobs report. the fedotenko start to slow down the stimulus package. cnbc has the roast of today's business headlines. good morning, kayla. >> good morning. new york's attorney general talks about how big u.s. banks use databases to screen out customers. the investigation centers on whether they're unfairly disqualifying lower income americans from opening checking and savings accounts. mortgage rates head back up. the average rate hits 4.39% this week. that's up from 4.31% last week. that's helped keep long term interest rates low. the energy bunny stopped going and going at sam's club. they've stopped selling energizer in favor of dura sell. >> what, no energizer bunny?

i keep waiting for it to go across the screen beating the drum. >> no longer. just ahead, tennis star roger federer proves he's good. that and all of the sports headlines next with richard lieuy next. your rates won't go uptee just because of an accident. smart kid. [ voice of dennis ] indeed. are you in good hands?

these are sandra's "homemade" yummy, scrumptious bars. hmm? i just wanted you to eat more fiber. chewy, oatie, gooeyness... and fraudulence. i'm in deep, babe. you certainly are. [ male announcer ] fiber one. it's time to talk sports with richard lui. >> good morning. happy friday. >> happy friday. >> absolutely. this is a matter of respect. philadelphia's riley cooper had to reearn some of that at training camp on thursday.

this is a day after video of him using an offensive racial slur came out. that was the same day he apologized. locker room responses are mixed so far. cooper will go to sensitivity training and has been fined. i want you to meet sarah thomas. she could be pro football's first permanent referee in 2014. >> all right. >> yeah, the mother of three training at the saints training camp. she says being a female has not inhibited her 17 year officiating career. go sarah thomas, right? alex rodriguez got to play ball for 30 minutes. the streets in front of steinbrenner field packed with reporters, not fangs. a rod heads to a couple of rehab games today and tomorrow. o. bruce banner in the house. matt halladay, wainwright trying to channel the incredible hulk.

>> yeah, let's try for the incredible hulk. that looks a little more macho. >> st. louis pummeled pittsburgh 13-0. the coach overheard saying to his players after he'll have to pump you up. >> i like to pump you up. >> right there. the cards are a game and a half back from first. she has 17. she has cancer. she wants to meet tennis star roger federer. she waited a year and he gave her her wish. he flew her to london, even volleyed with her at wimbledon center court. she said later, quote, i love you and i will never, ever forget this day, end be quote. way to go. good guy. >> absolutely. on the seventh inning stretch, got a hot dog, maybe a beer. nah, that's a snore. how about propose to your girlfriend? yeah, you. >> i love these stories. >> would you say yes? >> sure. i don't know, depends on the guy. i don't know this guy.

>> well, she does and -- >> thankfully. >> if you like that idea, fenway only allows one proposal per game. you have to move quick. you have to move quick on your girlfriend too. >> blew it. there's a waiting list for that. >> you know what i mean, in terms of marriage you never know what happens. >> get me out of here. tensions between the u.s. and russia, they are rising now that russia has granted temporary asylum to nsa leaker edward snowden. the u.s. wants snowden returned so he can face charges and plus what leverage do they have now? joining us is kevin surilly. good morning, kevin. >> good morning, betty. >> first thing i want to ask you, what does russia have to gain by defying the request to release snowden? >> that's a good question. i think as we head into next month's g 8 summit in st. petersberg where there would be a meeting between president

barack obama and putin, that gives them leverage. john mccain and chuck schumer, two different parties both calling this an embarrassment and an awful situation and saying that perhaps president obama should reconsider miss trip next month. >> yeah. you know, on the whole what does this do to the relationship between russia and the u.s.? are we going to see it continue to deteriorate because of this? >> i think it's definitely a strain. president obama has said publicly he wants to crack down on these leaks. this is the worst leak in his administration and i think it comes at a time where he really has to do something. b internationally toressure not see how thiss going to shake out. this is a really defiant act by the russian government. >> absolutely. puts the u.s. reputation at risk as well. both sides are battling. kevin, thanks so much for your insight. we appreciate it. coming up, bill karins and

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♪ ♪ ♪ how can you not sing along to that song? check out the entire clip on jimmy fallon. if that doesn't make your first buzz, check this out. this is a wonderful story. there was a race going on in michigan. a 9-year-old boy was struggling. he wasn't able to finish. he got lost so he asked this marine if he could help him

finish the race so this marine who's in full gear with a backpack, combat boots on and everything, he left the rest of his pack and decided to run with the boy encouraging him to fini finish. the marine helped him finish. he was dead last. >> he's first. he's number one in that little boy's mind. >> he doesn't want to be called a hero. this is what anyone would do. >> isn't that a great story? >> awesome. >> great photo. we go to that to a little technology. >> google glass, right? they're working at google to get famous people to use it. $1500 if you get chosen to be one of the initial folks. roy had i beibbard with google . he shows what he goes through. he says, i'm in the groove now. i've got is when he dunk. we go. >>. >> boomer:. yeah. >> it doesn't show when the eye

balls move, just the head. >> what does the glass do, improve your game? >> it's a camera on your head? >> it's a camera on your head in this application. for me it's like nerd alert. i don't know if you've seen it. >> on pro athletes, not nerd alert. >> they're trying to make it cool. >> they're trying to make it cool by putting it on the professional players. raiders punter clui has also done it. >> from sports to sports fashion. i didn't know you were such a fashi fashionista, bill. >> a lot. new orleans has renamed their basketball team, the pelicans. we had a lot of fun with the red eyes. they announced their uniforms. what's your opinion? >> looks good. >> straightforward. i know. they're kind of boring. the logo. >> thedl on the logo. you can't tell what their actual -- >> you can't see what it is at all. >> the tulo gee, the scary

pelican is only on the shorts, not the jersey. if you want to buy the jersey for your kids. >> thanks for watching first look on msnbc. russia has stabbed us in the back and each day that snowden is allowed to rome free is another twist of the knife. mr. putin is relishing poking us in the eye. as long as prime minister putin acts like a bully, we have only one choice, to stand up to him and show him that bullies pay a price. >> from moscow with love, nsa leaker edward snowden is out of the airport this morning and u.s.a. leaders aren't happy about it. the immediate impact this will have on relations in russia. the end of drone strikes in pakistan. the secretary of state and the white house's response to that news. also, you thought debate got heated in washington.

why taiwanese lawmakers are getting violent in parliament and how this brawl compares to some of the best we've ever seen. this is whey too otherly. "way too early." we have all that and the millennials who are saying there's no place like home as well as this incredible comeback that happened in boston. good morning, everybody. i'm thomas roberts in for brian shackman. it is friday, august 2nd. we begin with pakistan and america's uneasy ally calling for an end to drone strikes on its soil. pakistan and the u.s. are opening the dialogue. this relationship has been strainve t u.s. drone program and what the u.s. believes is